Gobsmacked! The re-installed Firefox kept crashing on startup yesterday, so I re-installed it again and now it works fine again today! Even more baffled..
I found Chrome just will not work on some PCs, works fine on this one, fast too.
While also not being any sort of expert, my first computer was an Amstad 6128 in the eighties, so I never give up! I thought I would pass on some simple fixes to try before paying out for a real 'expert' to take it to his shed and do exactly the same simple things. It may help someone, what have you got to loose?
If anyone I know is dumping a PC because they say it is u/s, I often have a go at fixing them to pass on... yes, I know, but it keeps me amused on those dark winter nights. :nut: and I often have good results by simple and free means.
The first thing I do is to open the case and thoughly clean out all the great piles of dust from all the fans and heat sinks, people never ever do this, it can be like a hoover bag in there after years on the carpet, and PCs hate heat. Sometimes the fans are jammed up with dust and not turning at all, especially the small ones.
That will often get it just stable enough to run and to defragment the HDD, which also has most likely never been done.
Then I run a system and registry cleaner, CCleaner will sometimes do a resonable job but Comodo System Cleaner is far more thorough, and leaves an easy undo button on the desktop, this stays there even after any restarts.
Once the PC is stable I install this wonderful little gizmo, http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_sysrestorepoint.htm'>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_sysrestorepoint.htm'>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_sysrestorepoint.htm it creates a one click system restore point creator from a shortcut on the desk top. Every time, before I change or install anything, I use it. I have it on a flash drive for easy install.
Then I get it on line and instal Avast ainti virus, update it and run it.
Often any files the previous owner thought they had lost can often be recovered for them.
A few useful FREE gadgets here.
http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
http://system-cleaner.comodo.com/download.html (Better and can run from a flash drive)
http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?part=dl-85737&subj=dl&tag=button
http://personalfirewall.comodo.com/free-download.html (works for me)
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_sysrestorepoint.htm (Restorepoint shortcut)
I have used all of these many times with no problems, hope this is of some help to someone, read this first before you start:
http://www.wikihow.com/Ground-Yourself-to-Avoid-Destroying-a-Computer-with-Electrostatic-Discharge